Sycamore, a South Carolina village in Allendale County of about 180 people,has a tiny, one-room post office on Main Street just off the main highway. It’s open from 8 a.m. to 10 a.m. on weekdays and from 8 a.m. to noon on Saturdays. According to a 2011 story, this post office and 27 others across South Carolina were scheduled for closure.
Sycamore is about 60 percent white with a 35 percent black community of residents. Unlike the whole of Allendale County with its almost 40 percent poverty rate, poverty is comparatively low at 10 percent in Sycamore.
Spider lilies bloom across from Kerr-McGee Farm Center on Main Street in Sycamore, S.C.
These vibrant spider lilies were in bloom near a sidewalk on the grounds of town hall in tiny Sycamore, S.C., in Allendale County when we passed by in early October. A week later, the grass had been cut and the lilies were gone.
Sycamore, a village of about 180 people, is about 60 percent white with a 35 percent black community of residents. Unlike the whole of Allendale County with its almost 40 percent poverty rate, poverty is comparatively low at 10 percent in Sycamore.
We’re not really sure about the story behind this great, old vernacular house along the railroad tracks in tiny Cummings, S.C., a few miles southeast of Hampton. And while the house is boarded up and front door is open, it seems to still be getting some use as a storage area. No doubt, there a lots of stories that could be told about its better days.
Hampton County, located in the southern part of South Carolina, was home to 21,090 people in 2010, about 4,000 fewer than a century earlier. More. Some 22.6 percent of Hampton County residents live below the poverty line.
Hampton’s annual Watermelon Festival is the state’s longest, continually-running festival. The town of Hampton includes a brownfield of a former medical waste incinerator. More.
Note how the early morning sunlight made this old barn pop out of the shadows along S.C. Highway 264 near Jacksonboro, S.C., in rural Colleton County.
Along the edge of the Southern Crescent, the barn reflects a time gone by in a county that is poised for growth because of its proximity to Interstate 95 and the Charleston metropolitan area.
Walterboro is the seat of government in Colleton County. It is home to 38,153 people, 21 percent of whom live at or below the federal poverty level.
While the Old Sheldon Church isn’t technically in the Southern Crescent — missing it by being a few miles east of Yemassee, S.C., and the Hampton and Colleton county lines — it’s a fitting photo for a fall Sunday. With Spanish moss dripping from old oaks, the church dates to the mid 1700s and served as a symbol of the prosperity of South Carolina in pre-Revolutionary War days. Rebuilt later, it burned around the time of the Civil War.
These days, plantations line lazy rivers, but most people in this rural area are far from wealthy. Hampton County, for example, is home to about 21,000 people, some 22.6 percent of whom live below the poverty line. Colleton County, also nearby, has just over 38,000 people, 21 percent of whom live at or below the federal poverty level.
A bale of cotton (500 pounds) can make about 1,200 T-shirts, according to cotton.org.
Old King Cotton is bustin’ out all over the South, including in this field near rural Ruffin, S.C., in Colleton County.
According to Cotton USA, about a third of the nation’s cotton is grown in fields from Alabama through Virginia. According to the U.S. Department of Agriculture, South Carolina ranked 10th nationally in production of cotton by growing 587,589 bales of the crop. As a comparison, Georgia, ranked second to Texas, grew 2.7 million in 2012.
Photo taken Oct. 1, 2014, by Andy Brack. All rights reserved.
Run-down motel, Allendale, S.C. Photo by Michael Kaynard.
Perhaps this image is the perfect characterization of poverty throughout the Southern Crescent. Not only is the word “crescent” misspelled in the sign outside this seemingly-abandoned motel in Allendale, S.C. But upon close scrutiny, it’s clear people are actually living in the rooms of this dilapidated place.
NOTE: This photo originally ran in September 2013, but we’re republishing today to remind people about the depth of poverty throughout the Southern Crescent.
Rural Allendale County in South Carolina’s southwest corner as one of the Crescent’s highest poverty rates — more than 40 percent of people live below the federal poverty level. The median household income is about $23,000 a year — half of South Carolina’s average and well below the nation’s $50,000 average.
We’re still trying to find out the history behind this grand house about five miles northwest of Holly Hill, S.C. where U.S. Highways 15 and 176 split. We’re told a family that just had a daughter (see if you can find the pink stork sign) is renovating it slowly. [We shared this popular photo first in 2013 and thought you’d like to see it again.]
UPDATE, 9/27/14: Our friend Lynn Teague of Columbia says her kin and friends call this the old Galphin House. Later she sent word that archives in Orangeburg identify the house as being built by the Rev. Richard Powers Galphin and Lillian Wells Galphin, who died in 1913 and 1935 respectively. She added that the land around Wells Crossroads likely belonged to the Taylor family more than 200 years ago. Thanks Lynn!
Holly Hill, which had about 1,300 people in 2000, is near the Santee Cooper lakes in Orangeburg County as well as Interstates 26 and 95. Thirteen miles south is the National Audubon society’s Francis Beidler Forest in Four Holes Swamp. It features the largest remaining stand of virgin bald cypress and tupelo gum swamp in the world. Also a few miles from Holly Hill are two large cement quarries.
Holly Hill is just one of the many towns in Orangeburg County, South Carolina’s largest. Some 91,476 people were thought to live in the county in 2012, according to the U.S. Census. Almost two in three residents are black. Some 24.5 percent of residents live below poverty.
An equipment shed sits on the back of a plowed field in rural Williamsburg County. writes Kingstree, S.C., photographer Linda W. Brown.
Williamsburg County, which is about 75 miles north of Charleston, S.C., has a population of just under 34,000 people. Population peaked in 1950 at 43,807, but has dropped slowly since then.
About two-thirds of county residents are black, with almost all of those remaining being white. Only 2 percent of those in the county are of Hispanic descent. Some 32.8 percent of residents live in poverty, according to the Census.
Look around rural areas of South Carolina and you’re almost more likely to see grain bins than structures like tobacco barns, writes photographer Linda W. Brown of Kingstree, S.C.
These bins are in rural Clarendon County, which has 34,357 people, according to the U.S. Census Bureau’s 2012 population estimate. About half of the county’s residence are white; the other half are black.
